The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[powpig]

Wow, after just getting back from WCB, I'm surprised to hear all the Apocolypse discontent here.

I rode it for the first time ever at WCB last year, 18 months later I thought it was running even better. Everytime that train stopped I was grinning and thinking, "this is the best ride in the park".

I would never even consider the word rough in attempting to describe Apocolypse, not sure what you guys are used to riding.

We got 6 on it at ERT including the last 3 where we didn't even have to get out of our seats.

Apocolypse Rules!

[cmullin]

It's rougher, but I *almost* like it better because it throws you around more. Some better airtime and a crazier ride!

[TroyWD98]

Wow, after just getting back from WCB, I'm surprised to hear all the Apocolypse discontent here.

I rode it for the first time ever at WCB last year, 18 months later I thought it was running even better. Everytime that train stopped I was grinning and thinking, "this is the best ride in the park".

 

Agreed, I had an awesome ride on it at WCB. When I rode it two months ago, I had a much rougher ride and was considering skipping it this time around. I'm glad I didn't! However, I only rode it once on Saturday because of 1 train operation.

[Sir Clinksalot]

Thanks for the Q&A stuff from SFMM, nice that they at least did some kind of Q&A.

 

The rumors I had heard prior to the announcements was a 400ft Sky Screamer and the slides so I was pretty shocked about the kid coaster.

[disney4me2001]

Another SFMM rant, now that I can officially complain about the park. And I *highly doubt* that they'd even care to fix it, even if they do read these boards. This goes back to the poor customer service thing last week. So, morning ERT has ended and my group and I were extremely thirsty and getting rather hot. Absolutely NO food places were open. I asked one of the workers if there was any place that is open where we can get water/fill up our souvenir cups. Answer I get is "These places open at 11:30" (Lunch time for us). I ask again, "Is there anything near by that would be open so we can get something." (Superman passes by as we were by the food court by Goliath)...lady we were speaking to uses that opportunity to 'not hear us' and just walk off. Thank's for the help, ma'am!

 

But wait, not done yet! Us being not 100% familiar with every nook and cranny of the park come lunch time, I ask an employee where the picnic area is. Again, they just walk by, no answer. I did in fact speak loud enough. Finally somebody directed us where to go. All of this was completely polar opposite of what I experienced at Knott's (who were extremely friendly and pretty much had open arm toward us).

 

I have to say that I definitely have the same complaint. After morning ERT ended I was in the back of the park in the Riddler's/Apocalypse area, and found that nothing was open! Had to go all the way back to YOLOcoaster Plaza to get souvenir bottle refills. I get that SFMM is a fairly large park and that the back area of the park isn't going to be busy at opening, but would it have killed them to open ONE drink stand?!?! At the very least they could have opened Studio 6F next to Gold Rusher- it has a Coke Freestyle machine inside!

[Sir Clinksalot]

^ Neither Studio 6F or Jet Stream opened until almost noon even though it was probably about 90 degrees+ at the time.

[Angry_Gumball]

And in the end, all we were looking for is some ice cold non metallic water. I ended up using a drinking fountain to fill up my cup (near Goliath, the restroom near Scream was the fountain I used last time that was quite toxic...not to mention the fact that the water pressure there was minimal. I just couldn't believe something as simple as a lemonade/drink stand would not open with the park, and we would have to venture all the way back up to the front of the park disrupting our flow we were trying to keep. I made up for it during lunch and made sure I kept myself well hydrated as it was getting excessively hot and I had yet to climb any of the hills...in which I was actually beginning to feel a bit drained when I headed from picnic area up to Viper's platform.

 

Long story short: SFMM, it's a hot day, you're in the middle of an effing desert...it's a Saturday...at least have some smaller drink locations open!

[Jew]

The guest service part is typical SFMM and unacceptable, but I don't entirely fault the park for not having anything open at the back end of the park in the morning. They ARE a business. No point in opening a venue that you know is not going to have enough sales to justify the cost of opening early. If you were the head of the foods department, you would do the exact same thing---because your job depends on it. The same thing happens at every single park in the country, with the only exceptions being the extremely busy days.

[cmullin]

It makes sense to not open food shops until people actually want food, it just costs extra for employees to sit and do nothing. The people running breakfast at Wascal's did let us back in to get some ice water since we were seriously thirsty, which was nice, since they didn't have to let us back in.

[Someotherguyuser]

It makes sense to not open food shops until people actually want food, it just costs extra for employees to sit and do nothing. The people running breakfast at Wascal's did let us back in to get some ice water since we were seriously thirsty, which was nice, since they didn't have to let us back in.

Speaking of Wascal's, those donuts were good! Can I say the unfathomable and say that those donuts were almost as good as Krispy Kream's?

[Angry_Gumball]

The guest service part is typical SFMM and unacceptable, but I don't entirely fault the park for not having anything open at the back end of the park in the morning. They ARE a business. No point in opening a venue that you know is not going to have enough sales to justify the cost of opening early. If you were the head of the foods department, you would do the exact same thing---because your job depends on it. The same thing happens at every single park in the country, with the only exceptions being the extremely busy days.

 

What irked me more was the fact that there was no kind of help whatsoever, no direction or info on if there were any shops or anything open up front. I don't know this park inside out as I don't visit the place often...so I wouldn't know which places do cup refills and such. I asked if there were any places nearby that would be open when the lady happens to walk off...as soon as I finished asking, SEFK passes by overhead and just as that happens, the lady ditches us. Frustrating for sure!

[GigaG]

While I am a younger person and therefore this may not apply always, at pretty much every Cedar Fair and Six Flags I've been to recently the rule was (at most places) that you can get a free cup of water if you ask. Panda Express near Viper does it too, they even have blue cups with the Chinese 水 (water) written on them.

[cmullin]

^ Yeah that always works. They can't not give you a small cup of water if you ask. My mom and I probably had 10 cups of water each, and never had any problems with employees not giving them to us.

[Xcoaster]

Also, we got stuck once on S:EFK. We launched about halfway down, then started braking, barely went up the tower, went back into the launch section, then went back toward the tower. From that point they had to slowly winch us back to the launch section, then the magnets took over from there in getting us back to the station. After we got off they gave us a skip the line pass for our group for any ride in the park besides YOLOcoaster.

I was on that train too! They gave you a front of the line pass on any other ride? We asked one of the ops and she said we could come back and skip the line on just Superman.

Yeah, it just said "No YOLOcoaster" and had the number in our group (5). We used it on Scream, since it only had the one train going. There were several employees handing out the passes, which is probably why they each did things differently.

[Jew]

The guest service part is typical SFMM and unacceptable, but I don't entirely fault the park for not having anything open at the back end of the park in the morning. They ARE a business. No point in opening a venue that you know is not going to have enough sales to justify the cost of opening early. If you were the head of the foods department, you would do the exact same thing---because your job depends on it. The same thing happens at every single park in the country, with the only exceptions being the extremely busy days.

 

What irked me more was the fact that there was no kind of help whatsoever, no direction or info on if there were any shops or anything open up front. I don't know this park inside out as I don't visit the place often...so I wouldn't know which places do cup refills and such. I asked if there were any places nearby that would be open when the lady happens to walk off...as soon as I finished asking, SEFK passes by overhead and just as that happens, the lady ditches us. Frustrating for sure!

 

That's an entirely different issue than simply not having the venues open. SFMM deserves crap for that. Not for keeping places closed that are guaranteed to lose money if they opened early.

[DJeXeL]

According to Screamscape's conversation with Sue Carpenter, don't expect X2 to be open until after Fright Fest. Sounds like that lift chain needed to be ordered.

 

This is probably common knowledge for those of you that attended the Q&A @ WCB.

[UrbanLegend]

^ Yeah that always works. They can't not give you a small cup of water if you ask. My mom and I probably had 10 cups of water each, and never had any problems with employees not giving them to us.

 

Every single park I've been to thus far, be it Six Flags, Cedar Fair, or an independent park, has given me a cup of water if I ask. Some vendors don't have small cups and give me a big soda cup of water

[Tmcdllr]

It's really sad and surprising that you had to go to that much trouble just for some water! I mean it's almost ridiculous. It's hot, it's dry, of course guests are going to want/need water that's a no brainer. I just can't believe the park seems to not see this as an important thing for their guests- fresh, clean water not that festering drinking fountain of death water either!

[Jew]

^They had restaurants open. The problem was crappy employees who didn't want to direct him towards those restaurants.

[MrSum1_55]

I agree that the fact that there is almost nowhere to find water at a park is ridiculous. Last summer, I visited Knott's and SFMM consecutively on days that were both in the triple digits. At Knott's I became thirsty by 11:00, but this was no problem, since they had restaurants and drink stands open all across the park. At SFMM, when I was parched at 11:00, I found nothing open in the back or side area of the park by Riddler's, excluding one frozen lemonade stand. When I cannot find water in a park on a day that is over a hundred degrees in the middle of the desert, that is a true negative in my book.

 

Really, it is the little things that parks do that make a huge difference. I would trade most of the coasters in this park for better overall operations and atmosphere.

[805Andrew]

I brought an older souvenir bottle for filling up with water and ice and never had a problem finding a drink stand to fill it up, though I didn't fill it up in the morning. The employees are a mixed bag at SFMM, as some of the ones I encountered are really nice and others are standoffish and rude. Some rides had passionate and efficient ride ops, like YOLO in the morning, Goliath, and the Sky Tower, while others were unfriendly (Lex Luther in the morning) or not efficient (Green Lantern). I do agree that Knott's employees are a lot more friendly and enthusiastic and Knott's feels less like a corporate park.

 

I'll agree that Apocalypse has gotten rougher over the summer but a few people here are acting like it's the return of Psyclone or something. It's no longer what I would consider smooth, but there weren't any jarring, painful spots like a number of the older GCIs out there.

 

I had a great time at WCB by the way! YOLOcoaster was better than I expected and I picked up two credits on Roadrunner Express and Canyon Blaster that for some reason I had never bothered with.

 

It's rougher, but I *almost* like it better because it throws you around more. Some better airtime and a crazier ride!

 

I agree with you two guys, I don't get all the complaints about Apocalypse being so rough -I didn't ride it until night ERT, but I really enjoyed my three night time rides on it, especially in the front row. I didn't feel it was THAT rough, and the cushioned seats were nice. I really liked the layout and surprises of Apocalypse and while I enjoyed Colossus, I think I liked Apocalypse better. I picked up five new credits on Saturday, including Full Throttle, Green Lantern, Apocalypse, and those two kiddie coasters I also had never bothered with before. The only credit I didn't get was Magic Flyer since it was under 54" only, but f@&% that piece of crap.

 

 

And to change the mood of this thread, I bring you ERT...

Seeing this in the Superman queue during night ERT might have been my favorite part of WCB at SFMM.

[Jew]

It is very rare for a park to NOT have staggered openings for their food venues. For example, I just looked at Disney's website today, and Award Wieners didn't open until an hour after the park at DCA. And that is right at the entrance to the land that is the gateway to a major ride (ToT) and a popular family dark ride (Monster's Inc.). Bengal BBQ in Disneyland? *Gasp* a whole TWO HOURS after the park opened (11:00am on a 9:00am opening time).

 

There are 5,000,000 other reasons why SFMM is a crappy park, but staggering food venue operating hours to allow them to actually make money is *NOT* one of them.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Jew

[RandallDuell]

Heh, yah, from my longtime reading of this forum I'd have to say if Jew is telling you to back off on a criticism of Magic Mountain, well, you probably should. I've not seen one person ride a park as consistently as he does this park (my theory is that something traumatic happened to him there, many moons ago, and it's his life mission to critique and tear apart this park ). In all seriousness, the staggered food opens is standard - they could obviously do a better job of advertising where drinking fountains/drink stands are.

 

Do we know anything more about the long term plan for that ride over near Deja Vu's old spot? The upcharge one? Does that have a set lifespan or will it just hang out there until they actually develop that entire area? Does that thing do well? Is it always open? Does it have a line? Ok, I'm done with my 4-year-old-like line of non-stop questions!

[Thri!!er]

This "freelancer"/racoon is really cute, hey!

Well, I would say, this is really MAGIC, what happens at Magic Mountain, no?

[Angry_Gumball]

I now dub this racoon the "YOLOcoon." Time to make him into a character! Still wishing I had seen this in person myself but my leeriness of racoons (they can be quite sketchy as cute as they look) kept me and the rest of the group away from that side of the queue.

YOLO!